A young shaman was wandering the Barrens, lost, which is a local term for "being in the Barrens". He was being attacked and attacked, so he did the sensible thing: he ran. Specifically, he ran south. As a general rule, mob levels go up as you go south. So I was not helping my situation. Finally I saw safety: a gigantic hole, into which my enemies surely would not follow. I'm not sure if they did.

Oh, I survived the fall. Don't worry about that. What I didn't survive were two dozen angry dwarves throwing torches at me, which due to my high rate of speed, since 40% was a big deal back at level 20 or so, appeared less like torches are more like rockets. I begged a friend to get on his main and save me from the "dwarves with rocket launchers".

I eventually moved on to Ashenvale, a land of birds and bears and dark purple trees. Also hostile elves. Well, mostly they stood around. But they didn't seem to react well to me going near their bases. I somehow managed to find somewhere around ten dozen hostile-elf-defended places, from which I would then run, screaming in terror.

If I knew the lore, I'd have also had some vague idea that to the north of Ashenvale is a land scarred and corrupted by demonic invasion and bombardment. Said land and its corruption results in various forms of diseased wolves of the 40s range. These wolves take great interest in shamans half their level running across the border into Felwood. By take great interest I mean "bite". And so a low level shaman found his corpse and ran screaming in terror back across the border and did not stop until he had run into another camp defended by hostile elves.

Of course I never ran from the devilsaurs. I never had the chance.

The Barrens are never a finished story. while running around the south, this time at the proper level, a young shaman stumbled across a small group of Alliance. Very suspicious! He went to investigate. At which point they got off their mounts and killed him. Thus he was taught what an elite tag means.

This shaman was one day sent to Swamp of Sorrows, a place reachable only by a trip through Duskwood, and the town of Darkshire. He ran and ran and ran. But he was not yet screaming in terror, for during most of the trip he was along a lonely road. An Alliance happened to run by and appeared to scream in terror while running, but the translation was spotty. So he ran along his way until he saw a town. He tried to go around, but the guards were less blind than might be expected given the dark and his semi-transparent state. And so he carried on tradition, running, screaming in terror, out of Darkshire while followed by a dozen or so Watchmen and guards.

He saw Deadwind Pass and he saw a Sky Shadow. He ran screaming in terror.

Where else have I run screaming in terror?Theramore, Ratchet, Stormwind, Elwynn, Stonetalon, Wailing Caverns... perhaps I should ask where I have not?

I also remember being afraid to respec because I didn't want to unlearn everything. I wasn't sure what it meant. It meant I was part resto for most of my levels before finally ditching all my points in elemental the day I realized that I was afraid to cast, since I might need the mana for casting. I tanked Scarlet Monastery: Cathedral more than once. Oh glorious aggro-added rockbiter weapon and earth shock.

What are your strongest memories from before the level cap?

Speaking of running screaming in terror, here's a blog which seems to have shown up recently: Raging Monkeys. You've probably seen her commenting EVERYWHERE. It appears to be an utterly useless blog, which is why I am willing to endorse it.